


Team Work

by undernightlight



Series: Gays in Space [9]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 16:58:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15369132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undernightlight/pseuds/undernightlight
Summary: Malcolm's training is interrupted by Major Hayes. Hayes makes some comment that Malcolm doesn't like, but thinks actually turn out okay, if they work together that it. Malcolm thinks maybe they should more often.





	Team Work

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FourAlignments](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FourAlignments/gifts).



> Thank you to FourAlignments for suggesting this idea to me in a comment, so this is for you. I hope it's up to your standards.
> 
> I hoped everyone enjoys!

Malcolm was tired, but he had to keep practising, he had to get better. He wore a constant frown as he practised.

_Stupid MACOs, showing me up like that. This is my armory, I’m in charge, I’m the armory officer. Hayes needs to keep his mouth shut, that idiot, getting in my way._

He’d really developed a hatred for the head of the MACOs. Malcolm swore he was trying to take his job, and there was no way he was going to let that happen. Over my dead body, he thought, and he shot again, but he missed.

“Dammit,” and he threw the plasma pistol to the floor, it making a dull thud sound as it hit the mat. It was getting tiresome. He could shoot better than that, he can hit a moving target at great distances, and with incredible accuracy, so what was his problem now? He’d hit...seventy percent of the targets, maybe less, and he was never this bad, not since he’d started aboard the Enterprise. He felt distracted, but he wasn’t sure why. It was the MACOs, it had to be, but when he thought about it, it seemed it was more Hayes he had the issue with.

“You alright Lieutenant? You seem distracted.”

“I’m fine.” He didn’t turn to Hayes, but he could hear his footsteps, eventually hitting the mat. Malcolm walked to the console to kill the program, and he grabbed the small towel from the side, draping it on his head.

“You look tired, your score reflects that.”

“Is that what you came here to do, insult me?”

Hayes inhaled deeply, drawing himself to stand taller; Malcolm wasn’t an expert, but he could tell he was taken aback by his harsh tone. He deserved it.

“No Lieutenant, I came here to tell you to take a break.”

“I don’t need a break.”

“Respectfully sir, you do.”

Malcolm stared at him, trying to think of something to say but his mind went blank, an empty shell. Maybe he was distracted by Hayes; he could feel heat rush to his face as he looked into the Major’s eyes. Hayes reached down and picked up the dropped plasma pistol.

“I’ve noticed your EM-33s seem different than the once we’re used to.”

Malcolm tried to take a deep breathe before he spoke, without making it obvious. Hayes didn’t seem to notice. “Yes, urm, they were too powerful, causing too much harm on the stun setting; we had too many deaths.”

“From stun?”

“They were causing cardiac arrest in some cases. It wasn’t ideal.”

Hayes nodded. “I think I remember hearing about them a few years back.”

“We were already out of space dock when we heard the news, and by then we’d already discovered the problem ourselves. None of us wanted to return so I figured out a way to modify them out here.”

“They seem different from ours. I was wondering if you’d look at them, see if you can alter them to same way you’ve done yours.”

He found himself nodding before he fully registered the request. “Yes, yeah,” he said, snapping back, “Happy to. Just, urm, give me a minute.” Hayes nodded as Malcolm walked away, picking up his uniform from the side of the room, and walking into the locker room. He quickly changed, throwing his sweat pants into his locked to wash later. He dragged his hands through his hair as he walked back out, and Hayes was stood where he was had been before; Malcolm wasn’t sure he moved at all, but his eyes drew up to his, and they walked to the door together.

It didn’t take long to walk to the armory, but it felt much longer. They didn’t speak. It wasn’t unusual for the two of them to be in awkward situations, but something felt different, Malcolm thought, but he couldn’t place his finger on it. Hayes had seemed surprisingly willing to ask for his help, something he hadn’t seen before. He knew he’d find it much harder to ask for the help of a MACO, especially if he could ask his own to do the job.

Surprisingly, the armory was empty when they got there; everyone must be on break. They’d all been working hard, and he knew they all needed a well deserved rest. There was a quiet hum in the air, like there always was in the armory, something Malcolm had become accustomed to over the years, and now silence was deafening. Hayes put the plasma pistol he’d carried with him on a workbench off to the side. Malcolm forgot he’d brought it with him. He grabbed a small toolkit from under the main console and walked back over, and he began unscrewing the side panels.

Hayes stood behind him, watching, and Malcolm could feel the MACO’s eyes drift from the pistol him him, he could just tell. He wasn’t sure why Hayes seemed to be staring like that. Granted they often tried to stare each other down, but this wasn’t one of those cases, so Malcolm was at a loss.

He removed the panel easily, placing it aside, and he pointed into the pistol. “See there? I added an EM dampener to reduce the energy flow to the plasma injector, without compromising any of the functionality.” He looked over his shoulder to look at Hayes, who looked back at him with a baffled expression.

“Sir, this really isn’t my field. I know my weapons but I don’t know this.” Malcolm thought the Major looked rather strange, looking this confused, eyebrows knitted together, lips parted slightly. He never looked confused.

“Well,” he began, trying to think how to explain it, but he wasn’t sure. He changed his mind, and decided a more practical demonstration would be best suited. “Hand me one of your particle rifles. The insides should be roughly the same.” Hayes did so, walking to the gun cabinet and taking one out. He brought it over and placed it on the table. Malcolm unscrewed the planel like he had. Hayes stood to the side this time, watching his actions more closely this time. The inside of the rifle was slightly more complicated, with two types of available ammunition, but Malcolm could easily distinguish the systems, and he found the plasma injector.

“That’s the plasma injector,” and he pointed, looking back to Hayes, who nodded. “We’d fit the dampener behind it, nessle it in there,” and he pointed to the slightly vacant space behind. If he pushed a few wires around, there would be plenty of space.

“And the dampener will reduce the energy flow?”

“Yes.”

“And that’s good?”

“Well, it means the stun setting won’t kill, and we’re able to fire more rapidly that we would be able to otherwise because it takes less time to recharge. But your weapons won’t need it, they’re the updated versions of the rifle and the EM-33s, and your phase pistols are fine as they are.”

“But they handle differently.”

“Yes, they would.”

“Is there anyway to change that, so that handle more similarly?”

Malcolm thought about it. “Maybe, it hadn’t crossed my mind before.” He walked away to grab one of their own altered rifles to compare the internal systems, and when he looked back, Hayes was poking around inside of the rifle. He was bent down, bringing his eyes closer to the level of the table, and he was using his fingers to push the wires around to get a better look inside the gun. Malcolm thought he seemed a lot less threatening like that, and somehow he found himself smiling. His smile dropped when Hayes turned to look at, straightening up, wide eyes, looking rather...innocent, Malcolm thought, but he dismissed that as quickly as he could, and he walked back over, setting the rifle down. He unscrewed the panel, Hayes standing even closer than he had before and Malcolm was very away of it.

His eyes flicked between the rifles. “Is that the dampener?” Hayes asking, moving his hand to point. He was right, but Malcolm was distracted as their hands brushed. Jeez, what was wrong with him? His body tensed slighted with Hayes’ fingertips grazed his knuckled. Even with the brief contact he could feel how rough Hayes’ fingers were; from years in the surface his hands had gotten rough and textured. Malcolm swallowed.

“Urm, yes, yes it is. I’m sure we can find a way to alter either ours or yours to handle like the other.”

Hayes nodded, and they set to work. Or more accurately, Malcolm set to work on altering the dampeners on their guns and the power output on the MACO’s, and other such things, while Hayes stood around waiting. When Malcolm was done fiddling, he’d hand them to Hayes and run the training simulation, and the Major would shoot a round with each, comment on the handling, and hand them back to the armory officer for more tweaks. Malcolm found their hands kept brushing when handing things over. At one point, to get passed him, Hayes placed a hand on the small of his back and walked around him. Malcolm tensed at the touch, surprised by it. Hayes was behaving very strangely, he thought, considering they didn’t exactly get along and the Major definitely didn’t seem like an overly touchy person; the only time they were ever in physical contact was when they were sparing, so this was definitely unusual. The strangest thing to Malcolm though was the fact that once Hayes removed his hand, Malcolm missed the warmth. He shouldn’t, he knew that, but he couldn’t help it. Maybe it was because he’d been deprived of touch for so long, especially _that_ kind of touch...yes, that much be the reason. He liked it because it was a touch, not because of whose hands were resting so comfortably against his back.

They continued to work, Malcolm tinkering away and Hayes testing them out. They got close at one point, but they weapons still handled differently; Malcolm agreed with the Major’s conclusion.

“You know,” Hayes said, “You’ve got a real talent for this. I mean of course you do, you’re in charge of the armory, but I mean you really understand this sort of stuff. You could really work on developing a new weapon, one that handled the best in all situations and environments.”

“Hmm, possibly. Actually, that’s not a bad idea. Maybe when we get back.”

“I always thought that Starfleet or United Earth should work on developing a phaser proof vest, or something similar.”

“I don’t know if you could make if phaser or plasma proof, but I’m sure there should be a way to distribute the energy more efficiently, whether through the vest or through the surrounding air. You should work on that.”

“I’m not technically able to, though if I was able to, I probably would.”

“I’d, urm, I’d help. I’m sure between us, we could sort something.”

“I don’t think I’d be much use.” Hayes was being strange, Malcolm knew for sure now, but why he didn’t know.

“I’m sure you’d be plenty useful Major.”

He laughed slightly at the compliment, a hand raising and rubbing awkwardly at the back of his neck, a small smile on his face. Malcolm had never seen the Major nervous or awkward before...it was quite a fetching look on him.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if you have any ideas, it's greatly appreciated and I do act on them, as you can see. Also, let me know what you thought about this in general.
> 
> Do you ship Malcolm predominantly with Hayes? Or do you ship him with anyone else? Trip? Archer? Hoshi or T'Pol??  
> There's something about Mal that just makes him so shippable, aha. I must say, Trip and Mal is pretty cute.


End file.
